J&J tries and fails to get biosims case tossed

A federal judge has dismissed a bid by Johnson & Johnson to toss a lawsuit from Pfizer claiming that its biosimilar was edged out of the market by unfair marketing practices.

According to the suit, J&J made deals with pharmacy benefit managers and insurers to maintain a dominance in the market for rheumatoid arthritis and its blockbuster medication, Remicade. Pfizer alleges that the practices kept lower-cost alternatives, including its biosimilar, Inflectra, from gaining any ground.

But J&J has countered that the competition did not provide enough value to patients. The company also argued that Pfizer did not have sufficient evidence for a lawsuit — but a federal judge in Philadelphia disagreed.

Now that the case will be allowed to proceed, it will be closely watched by the industry and could set a precedent for how other lawsuits regarding biosimilars are decided.

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